According to Krukow Behavioral Design, a combination of the right colors, behavioral transmitters and social norms can help fuel the mass behavior change
necessary from stemming the spread of COVID-19.

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread across the globe,
Copenhagen’s Krukow Behavioral Design has created
a series of help packages and nudge solutions for immediate optimization of
hygiene and behavior in supermarkets, pharmacies, hospitals, nursing homes, etc.
The specially designed messaging to make it easy and intuitive for citizens to
comply with various public-health recommendations — such as using hand sanitizer
and keeping social distance.

According to Krukow — which has also applied its behavioral design strategies to
help brands, supermarkets, etc create the right conditions for guiding
consumers
into healthier and more sustainable lifestyle and consumption habits — the
makeup of the human psyche makes it challenging for us to translate communicated
guidelines into behavioral change when we are shopping, entering a hospital or a
pharmacy. As founder Sille Krukowhas
explained,
our behavior is driven by two types of thinking: 90 percent of our brain
functions on automatic thinking or habit, while only 10 percent uses reflective
thinking to drive our choices; this kind of thinking requires much more effort
and is not a dominant driver of human behavior.

Therefore, if we are not constantly reminded of doing the right thing, in the
right way and in the right contexts, we are likely to fail. So, since the pace
of creating behavioral change at scale is crucial for preventing the virus from
continuing to spread unencumbered, Krukow designed a kit of nudges tailored to
this express purpose.

In creating the nudges, Krukow emphasized several subtle but crucial changes
needed to make many existing coronavirus-related public health measures more
effective:

Communications and information — inconsistency in virus-related
messaging creates confusion and overwhelm; and Krukow says a profusion of
written information resonates poorly with the human brain and reduces the
odds of visitors doing the right thing.

Use of icons and colors — common use of colors and symbols that signify
danger and/or alarm- increase fear, which can lead to inappropriate
behaviors such as hoarding.

The Krukow team’s nudges aim to address these pitfalls through carefully chosen
color schemes (such as blues — which create calm and intuitively relate to
hygiene, and therefore do not induce panic), helpful/instructive icons vs those
that signify danger; and optimal placement of these icons, to easily illustrate
the new social norms needed — from all of us, whether we feel sick or not —
during the outbreak.

Download an introduction to the Krukow COVID-19 Nudge Solutions and the
print-friendly nudge fileshere. For questions about the implementation of the solutions or more COVID-19-related
solutions, please contact Krukow at [email protected].